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and on a smaller one is the inscription—‘‘ Peace and Prosperity to the Church of 
England.” The earliest existing Parish Register only goes back to 1609, and this 
has nearly perished from damp in the chest in which it has been kept. 
So ended the day’s Church inspection. The members returned through a 
drizzling rain to Hereford, and dined well at the Mitre Hotel, under the presi- 
dency of the Rev. Augustin Ley (a Vice-President of the Club), in the unavoidable 
absence of the President, Mr. Blashill. Very excellent papers were read after 
dinner—one on ‘‘ Meteorology,” by Mr. Henry Southall; and another on the 
insect “* Orgyia antiqua,” by Dr. Chapman ; and thus the Club recovered its more 
usual tenor of natural science. 
The following gentlemen took part in the day’s proceedings—The Revds. 
Augustin Ley, and G. H. Metcalfe, and Dr. Chapman (Vice-Presidents), Dr. Bull, 
Revds. C. Burrough, W. D. V. Duncombe, J. E. Grasett, F. T. Havergal, E. J. 
Holloway, W. A. Hatton, A. G. Jones (senior and junior), H. B. D. Marshall, J. 
T. Nosworthy, H. W. Phillott, F. S. Stooke-Vaughan, J. Tedman, and H. W. 
Tweed ; Col. Hart, Dr. Wilson, and Messrs. J. Brown, E. Briihl, F. C. Cleasby, 
A. C. de Boinville, R. Dixon, J. Docking, W. Ewart, J. T. Owen Fowler, J. J. 
Merriman, J. M. Parry, G. H. Phillott, J. Riley, H. Southall, O. Shellard, E. 
Watkins, and T. Lane (Secretary). 
ON SOME RECENT METEOROLOGICAL EXPERIENCES. 
By Mr. Henry Sovuruatt, F.R. Met. Soc. 
THE state of the weather has so large an influence on our health, and comfort, 
and often so much interferes with our arrangements and pleasures—to say nothing 
of its more important effects upon the productions of the soil, the prosperity of the 
country, and the safety of travellers by land and by sea—that however indepen- 
dent we may feel personally of its fluctuations and changes, it is a subject that 
naturally forces itself upon our attention. 
The object of the present paper is not to propound any fresh theory in regard 
to the laws which regulate our storms or calms, or indeed to attempt to solve any 
of the puzzling problems which they may suggest; but rather to point out what 
appear from past records to be the limits of variation to which our English sum- 
mers are subject. 
The poet Thomson, in his Ode to the Seasons, thus speaks of summer— 
“* Then comes thy glory in the Summer months 
With light and heat refulgent. Then thy zun 
Shoots full perfection through the swelling year; 
And oft thy voice in dreadful thunder speaks, 
And oft at dawn, deep noon, or falling eve, 
By brooks and groves in hollow-whispering gales,” 
But instead of the appropriateness of this and other descriptions being dis- 
cussed, the question is constantly asked, and but seldom answered—‘“‘ How long is 
